BLACK LIGHT at Greenwich House

I went last night with a friend.  Mesmerizing 

Went tonight and wow, what an incredibly special evening. I'm having a hard time even describing it, but I found myself moved to tears, out of joy and also longing. What a show.

Found a review of the prior production which describes it in greater detail:

https://newyorktheater.me/2018/02/25/black-light-review-jomama-jones-makes-it-alright/

I thought it was very entertaining and I'm glad I went but I'm not sure it was totally successful. I think I wanted it to be more of something. It was in a safe middle ground. It brought up some tricky subjects (at least if that's not your personal experience or you don't engage with those kinds of progressive ideas) but it didn't fully cash them out or force the audience to confront them. I couldn't help but compare it to Hedwig. And yet I'm not sure if we should expect that same performance of transgression and confrontation and pathos and raw emotional trauma. I think Daniel is probably perfectly capable of writing that material and Jomama is perfectly capable of performing it based on that one anecdote that leads up to the explanation of the title. But I don't know if that's something the audience is owed. It felt like it was at the intersection of a lot of things... performance art, spoken word poetry/testimony, episodic memoir, cabaret, drag, disco/pop, etc. but it didn't quite hit the way I wanted it to except at certain moments. So... it was less than the sum of its parts. A collection of brilliant moments that didn't quite come together. 

I'm curious to hear if it changes in previews. I'm tempted to see it again but I kind of don't want to sit through some of those songs again. I do think it's worth seeing though.

Also, some excellent lighting and fabulous costumes. 

Theater3232 said: "Talked of really wacky stuff like overthrowing the government via a coup."

I'm hazy on the specifics (it was one of those lines tossed off for like-minded members of the audience) but I recall that as being a reference to the current inhabitants of the White House. 

You're right that it's not really a drag show. Disco and frequent costume changes aside, it's not really that camp. It's more of a straightforward cabaret that meanders around politically relevant topics. It's less of a manifesto and more of a gentle exploration of questions that are probably plaguing a lot of us right now interwoven with amusing bits of personality history that could have been more purposefully chosen.